SIG SAUER Set to Unveil Huge Ammunition Plant Expansion in Jacksonville, Arkansas

Later this morning, SIG SAUER will hold the official dedication and unveiling ceremonies for a massive expansion of their ammunition business. This latest expansion, a 210,000 square foot building they call the Jacksonville Arkansas Ammunition Center (JAAC) is the largest piece of a rapidly expanding SIG ammunition campus, a six-building 436,000 square foot complex that employs more than 675 Arkansans.

With this latest expansion, SIG will have spent more than $225 million dollars in equipment and facilities.

But the ammunition being produced here won’t be appearing on shelves in your local gun shop, at least not in the immediate future. The expansion will enable SIG to supply ammunition for their 6.8 Next Generation Squad Weapon military contracts. The facilities will be building 6.8 in four varieties, from 6.8 GP (general purpose) to the 6.8 blanks used in training. It also produces SIG ammo in 300 Winchester Magnum, 300 Norma Magnum, 338 Norma Magnum, and 6.5 Creedmoor, in addition to the various flavors for the NGSW. 

Touring the manufacturing areas in advance of today’s official opening, it’s obvious that SIG’s ammo division isn’t setting up for civilians. The final steps in the making of the 6.8 NGSW linked ammunition we watched yesterday brought that home. 

Ammunition is manufactured using a combination of technological advances and old-fashioned hand inspection. As the ammo was made from components, processed and finished, it passed through a number of visual and computerized inspections. As the linked ammunition came off the finishing lines, however, it was hand inspected, machine tested, then hand packed into cartons placed into familiar green army ammunition cans which were then packed into wooden crates. 

Humans completed each of those steps, not robots. When I asked why that was, the answer brought home the ultimate purpose of linked rounds: “Because we want the people who use this ammunition to know that people who care about each of them inspected it before it went to them.”

It’s also obvious that SIG SAUER is planning on seeing that business expand. SIG emphasized more than once that the scalability was to enable them to expand to meet the needs of the United States military and all of its allies. 

This morning VIPs and dignitaries from the government and military will be on hand to see the facility that SIG has built. They’ll include Arkansas Governor Sara Sanders, generals, and many federal, state, and local dignitaries. They’ll also be joined by SIG’s upper echelon and the proud employees of the Jacksonville, Arkansas facility.

We’ll be there as well. And as always, we’ll keep you posted.